“Analysis of Gene Expression Profiles of Multiple Skin Diseases Identifies a Near Universal Signature of Disrupted Homeostasis" by Dr. Kevin Mills on August 3, 2017

Summary

TRI Princeton is pleased to invite you to join us as we continue our highly regarded seminar series. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Center for Dermal Research at Rutgers University. These seminars are free and open to the public.

Triggers of skin disease pathogenesis vary, but events associated with the elicitation of a lesion in different disease states share many features in common. Our objective was to identify common gene expression patterns in skin disease states to develop a molecular signature of disruption of epidermal homeostasis. We hypothesize that this has relevance beyond disease, and that skin health is a continuum from perfect skin to full blown disease, with mild skin conditions (e.g. seasonal xerosis, mechanical, UV, and surfactant-induced damage, chronological aging, etc.) lying somewhere in between. By extracting gene expression data from a number of different transcriptomic profiling studies of inflammatory skin diseases (e.g., psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis and acne), and the use of a novel statistical algorithm, we defined such a molecular signature and named it the “Unhealthy Skin Signature (USS).” Analysis of publicly available data repositories has shown that the USS is found in a large number of diverse epithelial disease states. Studies of milder disruptions of epidermal homeostasis have also shown that these conditions converge, to varying degrees, on the USS. Using pattern matching algorithms, we have found that the USS and other Gene Ontology thematic skin disease signatures can be used to assess in vitro disease simulations, and to identify new therapeutics to treat disorders of skin inflammation and barrier function.